


Bruised

by tomorrowsnews



Series: Runaway [1]
Category: Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Abuse, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, It's sad but it gets happy at the end, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-03
Updated: 2014-09-03
Packaged: 2018-02-16 01:44:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2251287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tomorrowsnews/pseuds/tomorrowsnews
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Romeo survives an abusive home with some help from his friends.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bruised

The first time Romeo comes to school with a bruise, it’s on his chest. Race points it out in the locker room, though Romeo was trying to hide it as best as he could without being too obvious. It’s hard to hide, though, when there’s a scrape on your face that lines up with it, practically pointing right down to it. The boys ask him how he got the injuries.

"Was it a fight?"

"Did you win?"

"How’s the other guy look?"

Romeo forces a laugh and tells them he was just screwing around with his little brother. “I guess the table jumped out at me.”

Well, it wasn’t exactly a lie. He had been screwing around with his little brother. And he did hit into a table. The events between didn’t need to be shared. 

* * *

The second time Romeo comes to school with a bruise, it’s a lot harder to hide. Everyone can see it. But nobody’s asking about it. Which somehow makes it worse.

Finally, at the end of the day, Romeo quite literally bumps into Jack. He stares for a split second, then he lifts Romeo’s chin with a finger. It takes every ounce of strength in Romeo not to flinch away, as he knows that would make it so much harder to get through this encounter.

"Name." Romeo looks up at Jack, a little startled. Jack is staring intently at Romeo’s black eye. It feels like he’s looking into his soul, able to see just how small Romeo really feels. "Give me his name." Jack’s other hand rests on Romeo’s shoulder. It’s all Romeo has in him not to yell when Jack grabs him; a reflex, a byproduct of his angry concern.

A minuscule part of Romeo relaxes. There’s no questions to be answered. No concerned friends whom he has to fabricate a story to appease. Jack jumps to conclusions, and Romeo couldn’t be happier about it. 

"Couldn’t tell ya if I wanted to, Jack." Another not-lie. Jack’s gaze has shifted to Romeo’s split lip. He notices how rehearsed it sounded, though his first instinct is to attribute it to Romeo speaking carefully, so he won’t aggravate his injury.

"You don’t know who did this?" Jack’s tone shifted, though still heavy with concern, to one of fury. Romeo didn’t respond. If he didn’t respond, he wouldn’t be lying to Jack. Besides, Jack had already made up his mind on the matter.

Jack stared for a half-second longer, before his face softened a bit. “Put some ice on that, will ya? You look like crap.” Jack gave him a pat on the back and walked away. Romeo thought he was going to burst into flames if Jack had kept his grip on his already-bruised shoulder for another millisecond.

* * *

The third time Romeo shows up with a bruise, it’s not to school. He hadn’t been to school in three days.

The first day, they thought he was just skipping. He did that every once in a while, but never by himself. All of his friends had been in school, wondering where he was.

The second day, they assumed he was out sick, and just hadn’t felt like texting any of them. It happened. Albert took Romeo’s work home—though he knew Romeo wouldn’t have done it if he was in school, let alone if he was out sick—as an excuse to go see him. 

Albert knew, just as well as any of the guys did, that Romeo didn’t have the best relationship with his parents. He never really talked about them much, if at all, and he never invited anyone over his house ever. Even getting picked up or dropped off at home was a last resort for Romeo. But even with that knowledge in mind, Albert was still totally taken by surprise by what he’d find out. 

He went up to the porch, kicking a rock out of the way as he climbed the stairs, and knocked on the door. Looking around as he waited, he glanced upward to see pieces of the brick wall falling off, and he realized the rock he’d kicked had probably come off the house. Noticing movement behind one of the curtains, Albert tried to look nonchalant as a man opened the door. He was a little disappointed it wasn’t Romeo. “Uh, hi. I’m one of Romeo’s friends? I’m here to drop off his homework.” One look and he could tell the man was beyond drunk, even though it was only three in the afternoon. The moment he glanced inside, Albert got a feeling that something was wrong.

He heard the man say “I think he’s upstairs sleeping. Must be pretty sick, hasn’t come out in a couple days,” but he was already pushing past and heading for the stairs. He went straight for the door that was closed, and he started knocking. “Romeo, let me in! It’s Albert.” He jiggled the doorknob, but it wouldn’t open. “Romeo, I’m coming in!” He threw himself against the door and it opened. Romeo had propped a chair against it to keep it shut, but he hadn’t done a very good job. The room was messy, but Romeo was nowhere to be found. Albert ran a hand through his hair.

"What the hell, Romeo?" he yelled loudly, kicking the chair over. Taped to the back was a note he definitely hadn’t seen before. He ripped it off and read it over, a sense of dread washing over him.  _"In case you couldn’t figure it out already, I ran away. It sucks here. Don’t come looking for me, I ain’t worth it."_ As soon as he was finished with the note, Albert heard Romeo’s father yelling something that sounded like “get out of my house,” but he was too drunk and Albert was too anxious. Either way, he wasn’t taking any chances, so Albert left.  When he was walking away, he gave the house a final look-over and only then did he notice the window in Romeo’s room was open, and had been the entire time. With his finger he traced a line of sight from Romeo’s window to the park not far off, and decided his guess was as good as any.

* * *

On the third day of school that Romeo wasn’t there, most of the boys weren’t either. Crutchie stayed to cover for them, and Davey’s parents wouldn’t let him miss (he was the only one that had made the mistake of telling his parents what they were doing). The boys had skipped school to go look for Romeo. They had to be careful; the only thing more suspicious than a couple of teenage boys walking around during school hours was a dozen boys walking around during school hours. They were to report back to Crutchie every fifteen minutes, and to Jack every hour, in order to make sure they were covering as much ground as possible. 

Specs: [11:23:05] “Found him.”

Specs: [11:23:10] “Alive.”

Specs: [11:23:11] “And conscious.”

Specs: [11:24:02] “He’s okay.”

By 11:30 they had all gathered where Specs and Race found Romeo (Specs forgot to include the location in his initial texts, which he was reminded of by every single boy). “So, you mean to tell me,” Jack said, pacing back and forth behind the bench that Romeo was still lying on, “that you ran away—without telling us—and decided that a park bench, where anyone could find you, was the best place to hang out?” He was struggling to maintain his composure. He was happy to have Romeo back, but he was a little angry at him for making them worry.

"Instead of saying, "Hey Jack, can I kick it with you for a night or a year or so?" you decided that running away was your best option?" Romeo looked down. Jack was right. It was really stupid of him. He scratched absentmindedly at his arm, ignoring the dull pain of a bruise. "I didn’t want any of you guys to worry." Race managed to pipe up before Jack or Romeo could get in another word. "Look where that got ya, kid. Of course we’re gonna worry. You’re our brother." Romeo looked up at him and smiled a little. "Now let’s find you a home and a shower, ‘cause you’re kinda gross, kiddo." 

* * *

By that evening it was already decided that Romeo would move in with Henry. Most of the other guys’ families either didn’t have the money or didn’t have the room for an extra mouth to feed, but it worked out that Henry’s older sister had just recently gotten married and moved out, so there was a spare bedroom and his parents had no obligations to housing someone who needed it. 

Two days later, Romeo went back to school. Specs had made him catch up on all of his homework, but Romeo didn’t mind it that much because he made Specs help him with it. 

Four days later, Romeo went back to his house to get the rest of his stuff, with Jack and Race as backup. Nobody was home, luckily, so Romeo left a note saying he was leaving for good. He was smart enough not to mention where he was going, and he was smart enough not to mention that he planned on coming back for his little siblings. It might take him a while, maybe even a few years, but Romeo made a promise to himself to save them from the hell he grew up in. 

Within two weeks, his bruises and cuts had mostly healed up. The scars would be permanent, but the physical ones would make for a good story some day and the mental ones he knew he could power through with the help of his friends.

**Author's Note:**

> Based off of something IHateThoseDancingNewsboys said and I rolled with it.


End file.
